No Limits Fitness: The rest muscle

If I ever find the rest muscle I am going to train the crap out of that sucker.

While the above picture is meant to be in jest I think it portrays the way I feel.

You can rest while you sleep. Go work out.

In all seriousness I think that people are WAY to concerned with rest.

So what is "rest"?

There are basically two kinds of rest.

1. Sleep. This is when the lions share of recovery happens. For most of us, honestly, this is all the rest we need between workouts.

2. Not working out. If you are not working out then you are resting. This includes time before and after your workout and time during your workout when you are recovering between sets or intervals. This is also plenty of rest.

Thank about it. You workout for lets say 45 minutes. Then you come back and do it the next day. That means your "rested" 23 hours and 15 minutes. Is that enough?

You workout is 3% of your day. You rest 97% of the time.

I'm sorry. That is too much.

The crazy thing is that many people have this warped perspective that you need to rest 48 hours to let your body "recover". That is cra cra.

In my mind that is flawed thinking.

The most fit people on the planet workout 2-3 hours per day 6-7 days per week. Of course they worked up to that but you get the point. To be more you need to do more.

So why do we think we need to do all this resting all the time?

Do we rest to prevent injury and sickness? No, we RECOVERY to do that. Rest is part of that but not all of it. To recovery we need to put the right stuff in our body and get plenty of sleep.

If you work out for 3 hours then don't drink enough water, eat like crap and barely sleep well then illness and injury are in your future.

My suggestion if you want to get fit beyond what you have done before then you need to workout more.

I did 3 workouts today. I ran 4 miles. I did 300 meters on the rower and I did a 20 minute functional AMRAP workout. I feel great!

Do I do this everyday? No. Should you do this everyday? No. Is this a great way to shock your system and push through plateaus? YES.

Here is a 7 step plan to gain AMAZING results from your workouts.

1. Do a wide variety of workouts and do a different routine each and every week.

2. Take a rest day if you feel run down or you can tell that your body really needs it. Don't force yourself to workout.

3. Do double or even triple workouts 1-2 days per week to shock your body.

4. Don't bother doing more than 3-4 workouts per week if you don't sleep 7-8 hours per night.

5. Eat more food! If you want some help with what kind of food to eat check out my wife's awesome blog: Lady Guru's Fit Kitchen.

6. Don't underestimate the importance of supplementation. We absolutely swear by Advocare Post Workout Recovery and Nighttime Recovery.

7. Challenge yourself! At ASM Fitness we are doing a rowing challenge which is making us all do a little extra. You can also train for some sort of fitness or endurance event. The CrossFit Open is a good one or any one of the hundreds of Obstacle Course Races that are out there.

Are you looking to add a longer, tougher workout into your week this week? If so then check out our Obstacle Course Race Training Class on Saturday. To register just shoot me an email at rick@yourbestfitnesscoach.com .

Who do you know that wants to be fit and healthy? If you find value in our daily blog posts could you like and share this article so that your friends and family can get the same benefit? I'm sure they will thank you!

To your fitness,